Last Friday afternoon was a really long afternoon.
The forecasters were warning residents for days that things would be bad on Friday, but this was more than I think anyone saw coming. Especially since there had already been a crazy round of weather with tornadoes early in the week.
I've never been a fan of tornadoes. I saw a horrific movie about them in elementary school during tornado awareness week that both scared and scarred me. My parents could tell you stories about how crazy I was growing up - I was so scared whenever bad thunderstorms blew up that I would do the craziest things. Like taking all my toys and favorite things into the basement at the sound of a tornado watch because I didn't want to lose my things. It got better as I got older, but it will never completely go away. I swear our realtor thought I was a loony toon for insisting on only considering homes that had a basement. In my mind, who in their right mind would build let along buy a house without a basement in an area prone to tornadoes?? Granted, you may never live to see a tornado come through, but why take the chance when you have the option?
Some early morning storms blew through on Friday that weren't too bad, but they weren't all that calm either. When I got up to let the dogs out and felt how warm it was outside even though those storms just blew through, I knew we were in trouble. Usually, after a decent thunderstorm, there's a coolness to the air and a smell that's hard to describe. It's a clean smell, but it's crisp too - probably because of the coolness. On Friday, neither was the case. It rained a couple more times that morning, but nothing more than a couple heavy downpours.
I had a last-minute doctor appointment with Brianne early in the afternoon and had jokingly told a couple co-workers that as long as a tornado wasn't knocking on my door, that I would be able to attend a late afternoon meeting with them. I should have known then that things were going to be interesting. Snarky comments always have a tendency to come back and bite me.
It was around 2PM that afternoon that things broke loose. It started up north and didn't take long to become an explosive situation. I watched the news coverage in complete shock as tornado reports kept flying onto the screen. There were so many in the viewing area alone, it was almost as if they couldn't keep up. The one the were most concerned with was the one just twenty miles north of where we live, across the bridge in Henryville. As I watched things unfold, I couldn't help but notice that the line of storms heading my way didn't look any better. Around 3:45, that's when we got hit. I was doing OK until the news team reported that the tornado warning moving directly to our town had an actual funnel cloud associated with it and they said they expected it to drop. That was all I needed to hear.I grabbed our 72-hr kits, the dogs, the hampsters, and Brianne and other important things and we headed for the basement. About 10 minutes later, right after we went downstairs, the storm hit. I was calmer than I expected to be, which I attribute to having to keep my cool for Brianne and because I'd prayed for help. When the hail and the wind hit, I could have sworn I heard things moving around upstairs. I was completely panicked. But then I was able to figure out what all these noises were and pull myself together again. After five minutes, it was over and we went back upstairs. With the exception of some hail damage to our fence, we got through it unscathed. I don't even want to think of what a car would have looked like with tennis ball-sized hail hitting it - our fence looks bad enough.
The news coverage has been prolific enough that if you haven't already seen what it looks like, then you must be living under a rock. Or maybe you don't have a television. Either way, the tornado picture above was enough for me. My heart goes out to all the people that have been affected by the storms, especially those that have lost loved ones. If I have learned anything, it's that we need to have our 72-hr kits updated and ready to go. I have a feeling it's going to be a bumpy spring.
